For our third and final Pledge Drive episode for 2014, we bring in our good friend Tom. In his alter ego as Four Dimensional Nightmare, he has been bringing his particular blend of guitar / drone / noise / sci-fi music for a number of years, and it is always a treat to see him in action. Miss Rikki & I have quite a bit of footage from this performance, as well as some photos, and we’re hoping to bring you all of this A/V as it is available.

Happy Father’s Day everyone! As we continue to attempt new and exciting things on our program, we are experimenting with a radio format that has more or less disappeared from the dial in the last several decades: a Radio Almanac. These kinds of programs were a kind of variety show, where news, historic anecdotes, music, dramatic readings, sketch comedy, and more were all put in a blender and presented as part of a broadcast for your entertainment. With that in mind, here is my first attempt at something like this, inspired by one of the last great people to attempt something like this, Mr. Orson Welles himself!

I’ve been more than a little obsessed with him lately. (If you aren’t really listening to it already, then you should start podcasting Orson Welles On The Air IMMEDIATELY.) His radio broadcasts were incredible, and in the days where he was the king of radio, he was also at the height of his powers. It’s also incredibly unusual to hear Orson perform comedy, as much of his other career has erased from memory the fact that he was good at it, too. I’ve been looking for a way to sneak his material into our program, and when I hit upon the idea of trying my hand at this kind of radio. As this is my first stab at it, I’m still zeroing in on what does (and doesn’t) work in this format. Hopefully, I can iron out all the kinks as time goes on.

Debuting in this episode is the beginning of my serialization of the incredible Sci-Fi classic, The Moon Maid by Edgar Rice Burroughs. (As I like to say, “The OTHER Burroughs.”) As I began reading this book, I was stunned at the kind of story I was being hit with, which is equal parts Flash Gordon and Jorge Borges. I’ve been kicking around the idea of adding new features to the program, and this seemed like the perfect way to introduce something new and something old at the same time. In this episode, I read the Prologue of this novel. Chapter One, hopefully, will be coming soon.

Father Songs abound in this episode, and I also try to give a little background on this particular holiday, centered around everyone’s favorite patriarch. However, this show should be suitable for all members of the family, whether you have a father or not. Consider this a mish-mash of the kinds of things I love, and hopefully, stuff you love, too.

I have always been a fan of space exploration, and as a young kid I even wanted to be an astronaut. But as time went on, and it became clear that I would not be the first man to Mars, I started to let my mind wander toward the stars instead, and soon became extremely interested in music, writing, and art. Now, in honor of the successful Curiosity Rover landing on Mars on the 6th of August, I present an audio essay dedicated to that success, filled with music about Mars, and information about exactly how hard it was to get there from here.

There is no shortage of music about our neighbor in the sky, and it was very easy to quickly fill the playlist with a number of choice songs. But the real backbone of this show are the samples from NASA TV. I was watching the rover landing live with some friends of mine, and their coverage of the event was great. They also made some very informative, and extremely well-produced, short videos that helped put into perspective exactly what the task at hand was. Using those videos and a jumping-off point, I assembled an audio essay that highlights two of the greatest forces in the universe: Science and Rock Music!

So, sit back for a journey into both space and sound. See you in seven!

I know I’ve been teasing something “special” for the last several weeks, and I can now say that it is here: the next installment of our ongoing Blasphuphmus Radio Theater Presents!, with live scoring by Moth Hunter.

YES!

This is something that I’ve always wanted to bring to this show: live, narrative radio. It’s happened a couple of times, in very striped down ways, but never like this. Moth Hunter performed a nearly sixty minute set in may, as the score for an edited version of the X Minus 1 classic, “No Contact.” (In fact, this was the first story X Minus 1 broadcast when they first went on the air on 24 April 1955.) As I have also teased, this will not be an isolated incident. I’ve been working with some other artists too, and this could become a regular feature in the very near future.

As an experiment this time, we’re doing something we’ve never done before: we’re offering the entire live performance, unadorned, as a download via our Bandcamp Page:

We wanted to try something new, and this seemed like a natural extension of this show. Getting to hear them both allows you to enjoy the performance as a stand-alone piece, and then appreciate it more as it is incorporated into the narrative of this show. It’s something that the Inter-Web-A-Tron was intended for in the first place, and I think it’s a very sensible move on our part.

Additionally, I would like to direct you to the photoset below. I always like to snap a few shots when I host bands, and this time was no exception.

We hope you enjoy today’s presentation. We put a lot of work into it, and we are really proud.

As the 14th Anniversary of our first broadcast was on Sunday, today’s show is a retrocast of selections and samples from our earliest recorded programs from or KWVA years. In the late ’90’s, College Radio (the kind of radio I prefer) was a very different place. We had different technology, and a different approach to what qualified as entertainment. Fortunately, the glory of cassette tapes has maintained a way for us to capture these broadcasts and re-present them to you here, and now.

However, there is a slightly sinister element to this episode, too. In somewhat of a sequel to “It Looks Like Thousands Of Stars” (and episode from 18 July 2007), I accidentally encounter a space / time anomaly, where I encounter none other that DJ Really Sloppy, who has also become unstuck in time. As I continue to experience the sounds of past radio programs, I hope that by listening to them may offer me a chance to return home afterward. Will I? Tune in and find out!

This episode was a lot of fun. While the official archive of our programs does not include every show we aired (or, even, complete shows), we do have a number of recordings of the shows from our KWVA incarnation. Digging through that archive – now digital, thank Earl – allowed me to pick some of the more well known moments captured on tape. As you can tell, I was heavily influenced by Negativland’s “Over The Edge” program, and you’ll find that these mixes and whatnot are but the tip of the ice berg when it comes to what the show really was like.

Having done a lot of preliminary editing, there will be more “best of” programs as I sort and organize the material. But this is a show I’ve been wanting to do since 2004, and only now do I have the technology to really bring it to you the way I was hoping I could.

Along with this show, we’ve also released a new podcast feed, entitled “14th Anniversary,” that we suggest as a compliment to this program. It contains a number of programs that illustrate more of the kind of program this show was like in the early years, as well as some other anniversary broadcasts, including: an interview with Exene Cervenka, two programs featuring Holden Craft’s appearances on this show, and the surviving audio from our very first program on 15 April 1998. It’s all part of the anniversary fun.

I hope you enjoy these strange and twisted audio creations I made during my radio show really late at night in Eugene during the late ’90’s after I would get fully loaded at the bar and broadcast on FM Radio. They were as much fun to make as they are to describe.

In the ’50’s, amid the din and clatter that was dramatic theater on the radio, the show that blew almost all the others away was undoubtedly X Minus One. They had an amazing crew of writers who went on to do a number of outstanding things, among them Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Robert Heinlein and Frederik Pohl, just to name a few. It was the kind of show that could not be missed, and is a big influence on my entire aesthetic.

As part of our Traveling Through Time series, we present A Gun For Dinosaur, writeen by L. Sprague de Camp, originally broadcast on NBC on 7 March 1956. I’m proud of this audio essay, which also includes The ADD Minute And A … with DJ Really Sloppy weighing in on the subject of the Geek & Sundry launch at Wonder Con. And, of course, we have A Minute With The Pope, recorded entirely on his iPhone. I like to think we attempt to deliver a new interpretation of those fantastic radio stories. With music.

As DJ Really Sloppy seems to have become Unstuck In Time, next week will mostly likely continue our Traveling Through Time series. Will he survive his experience unscathed? Tune in next week, to find out.

A Minute With The Pope 03: Computer Fight * The Pope * Recorded Entirely On An iPhone.

Segment Six: A Gun For Dinosaur Part V
20.) Prevenge * The Might Be Giants * The Spine
21.) Tell Me When It’s Over * The Dream Syndicate * The Days Of Wine & Roses
22.) No Doubt About It * The Wipers * Follow Blind

As I’ll be running late this week due to an unforeseen problem, to make up for it I’m going to take you on a musical journey through outer space as we present Going Somewhere New. While this show does have Sci-Fi Themes and Content, don’t let that detour you! We are focusing on new-ish-er albums, from the last year or so (or, in some cases, so and so), in an effort to feature music that doesn’t normally make it into this show.

There are a number of great albums that come out all the time, but circumstances don’t always offer me a chance to present them on the air. And while these records are helping me rock at any given time in my own life, when it comes to the radio they are sometimes ignored, and wrongfully so. This is an effort to fix that, by reducing the theme to something really basic: new albums.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we don’t get to have some fun on the way. In the first section of the show, I bring you some samples of the shoegazer gems that have been popping up recently. If you have to bring back a genre, they picked a good one. Section two focuses on some of the pop and hip-hop that I’ve been pretty excited about late. Then we close with some hard-rockin’ slabs of musical wonderment in an effort to stay strong until the very end. All the while, our musical accompaniment for this journey comes from the fantastic sci-fi, hip-hop gem, Star Pilot’s Lament, which mixes sound effects, dancey beats, heavy guitars, and a fantastic plot that spans an entire disc. That, and a cut from the new Tom Waits album. This is a classic episode from start to finish.

Sit back for a radio adaptation of The Black Hole, Disney’s attempt at Sci-Fi that is equal parts 2001 and Star Wars. While the film was a bit of a flop when it was released, there were a number of pieces of media released at the time that retold the story of the film, all on vinyl. That, coupled with samples from the film itself, have been combined for two-hour presentation of one of the most over-looked narratives of the last 30 years. Now, today, join us for the entire story, specifically designed for radio enjoyment.

I have to say, as a kid, this film left a pretty big impression on me. My parents took me to see it at a Drive-In, and while most of the film had been forgotten almost immediately, the robot characters stood out so much that I immediately incorporated them into my own imaginary games that I regularly played on my own. Years later, I discovered the audio treat of listening to this film on headphones. Minus one orchestral bit in the last third of the film, the score is creepy and awesome at the same time, and the audio effects fully utilize the stereo effects that were available. It’s really a joy to listen to, and while the delivery of the dialog in many parts borders only on passable, the audio editing is what draws me back to this film over and over again.

Plus, there is also a bit of Odysseus traveling into the Underworld at work here. That always goes over well.

Obsessive Black Hole fans will note that I eliminated two somewhat-confusing subplots from this presentation: the fact that Dr. Reinhardt used to have Kate’s father on the Cygnus with him, but later killed Kate’s father. This subplot adds nothing to the story, and is irrelevant on the whole. There is one bit of dialog that I failed to cut, but it is out of context and I don’t think it makes things any more confusing than it already is. I also eliminated the suggestion that Maximillian (the robot) was actually the one in charge, controlling through intimidation Dr. Reinhardt. Again, it was a confusing subplot that only surfaces once or twice. I also tried to trim as much of the “bad” orchestra cue as humanly possible. (The only used during some of the lazer battle scenes.) With all the good music in this film, that song really stands out. While much of it is still in the show, I cut as much as it made sense to.

Attentive fans will notice that this is the second time I’ve attempted this story for radio. This is an expanded recreation retrocast of a show from August of 2007. At the time, the show was only an hour long, and I did not yet have the LPs that I’ve used to expand and supplement this broadcast. What is funny is that the story finally makes sense in this form; originally I just used samples from the film, which means that the visual elements that tell the story are lost on the audience. (I’m specifically thinking of the ending sequence, that lacks dialog for much of it.) That, coupled with editing out about 45 minutes of the story, made that version a little difficult to make sense of. (However, it was a great piece of experimental audio.) Lastly, there is no recording of the original version. I’ve been planning to do a recreation of it for quite some time. However, now that I have the Disney LPs, it seemed appropriate.

For those curious about the people involved in working on this film, here are the appropriate credits, in terms of the audio story. While I did all the editing and arrangements on the radio version, it was done with original materials created by Walt Disney Pictures. It seems important to give credit where credit is due.

Directed by Gary Nelson

Story by Jeb Rosebrook, Bob Barbash, Richard Landau & Gerry Day.

Narrated by Percy Rodrigues.

Music by John Barry, with help from Evelyn Kennedy, Helen Sneddon, Dan Wallin and Albert Woodbury

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Blasphuphmus Radio brings you a special presentation of an X Minus 1broadcast from 1957! It’s all part of that little piece of joy we like to think of as our weekly radio show. Ob-soive:

We rarely consider Valentine’s Day a radio-friendly holiday, but this year the combination of Sci-Fi and creepy love songs was just too irresistible to pass up. But stay tuned! Next week, DJ Will will be in the studio for a Grumpy Punk Valentine’s Day show to end all Valentine’s Day shows. Who says we don’t care about love?

On January 22nd, KPSU was barraged by a terrible tachyon field That caused the station to simultaneously exist in three separate time periods: 1950, 2011, and 2155. Fortunately, no one was hurt too badly, and the results have been rather intriguing. Ob-soive:

Beware The Searchers!

Enjoy!

# Track * Artist * Album * Label
01.) To The Future (Part I)
02.) Time Stands Still * Lee Ranaldo * East Jesus: Some Recordings 1981-1991
03.) Time And Space * Jandek * You Walk Alone
04.) Time Was * John Coltrane * Coltrane * Impulse Records
05.) To The Future (Part II)
06.) The Time Machine Main Title / Credits * Russel Garcia * Brain In A Box: The Science Fiction Collection * Rhino Records
07.) To The Future (Part III)
08.) All The Time In The World * Roger Miller * The Benevolent Disruptive Ray
09.) Sentimental Journey * Esquivel * Space Age Bachelor Pad Music
10.) Rewind The Time * Oliver Squash * 30 Piece
11.) Time * The Residents * God In Three Persons
12.) To The Future (Part IV)
13.) Dan vs. Time * godheadSilo * Skyward in Triumph * Sub Pop Records
14.) We Can See Through Time * Le Ton Mite * Tickets to Real Imaginary Places * Zicmuse Records
15.) To The Future (Part V)
16.) Once Upon A Time * Sonny Sharrock * Ask the Ages * Axiom Records
17.) Tomorrow Afternoon * Tony Williams * Life Time
18.) Time Stands Still * Lee Ranaldo * East Jesus: Some Recordings 1981-1991
19.) There’s Nothing Sexy About Time * Kinski * Don’t Climb On And Take The Holy Water
20.) To The Future (Part VI)
21.) She Makes Me Want To Build A Time Machine * Aristeia * You Give Me Strength, You Give Me Patience!
22.) A Spoon Taught Me The Secret Of Time Travel * The Jezebel Spirit * Turtles All The Way Down * (Self-Released)
23.) Abandoned Mine Shaft In The Corridors Of Time * Sinking Body * Grappling With The Homonids * Vermiform Records
24.) To The Future (Part VII)
25.) Take Time * The Books * The Lemon of Pink * Tomlab Records
26.) There Will Never Be A Better Time * Desert Sessions * Volume 9 & 10
27.) Retrovertigo * Mr. Bungle * California * Warner Bros. Records
28.) Universal Time II * Zip Code Rapists * Zip Code Rapists
29.) To The Future (Part VIII)
30.) Time Flies * The Ex * Dizzy Spells * Touch And Go Records
31.) What Time Is It? * Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 * Tangle
32.) To The Future (Part IX)
33.) A Stitch In Spacetimes * Nil Admirari * Togetherness With Battlesnakes
34.) Time Stands Still [Excerpt] * Lee Ranaldo * East Jesus: Some Recordings 1981-1991
35.) Just In Time * Sun Ra And His Myth Science Arkestra * We Travel The Spaceways Bad And Beautiful
36.) To The Future (Part X)
37.) A Second Of Time * Half Eye * Broken Rope
38.) If Not This Time * Fifty Foot Hose * Cauldron * Phoenix Records
39.) Running Out Of Time * Dead Moon * Hard Wired in Ljubljana * Empty Records
40.) To The Future (Part XI)
41.) Time Funnel * Jan Davis * Lux And Ivy’s Favorites Volume 04
42.) To The Future (Part XII)
43.) She Lives (In A Time Of Her Own) * 13th Floor Elevators * Easter Everywhere * Decal Records
44.) I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times * The Beach Boys * Pet Sounds
45.) Stranded In Time * The United States Of America * The United States Of America
46.) Now Is The Time * The Wipers * Over The Edge
47.) Times Encounter * Nigel Simpkins * Messthetics Vol. 1
48.) To The Future (Part XIII)
49.) As Time Goes By * Rudy Vallee
50.) Time Is Tight * Booker T. & the M.G.’s * The Complete Stax-Volt Singles 1968-1971
51.) To The Future (Part XIV)
52.) Check Out Time * Ornette Coleman * Love Call * Blue Note Records
53.) To The Future (Part XV)
54.) One Day At A Time * Thee Headliners * Rain & Blood

For generations, mankind has always tried to make sense of what lies ahead of them because, as the old saying goes, it is where we will be spending the rest of our lives. Time and again, artists have hedged their bets on their particular version of what is to come, ironically leaving this train of creative evidence in the past. But what of us doomed to forever remain rooting in the now? As usual, we here at Blasphuphmus Radio have considered your needs, and thus have designed this show as a way of dealing with that very problem. Ladies and Gentlemen, I bring you: The Future.

I myself needed a show like this, as my own life seems to be resting on its own divide between the future and the past. As I lay suspended in that in-between place, attempting to chart new paths based on places I’ve been, it seemed very appropriate to meditate on other visions of The Future, to see if I could help make sense of where I might want to go myself. Often, there is a certain amount of Science Fiction associated with perceptions of The Future (with capital letters), and while this show veers into that territory occasionally, my interpretation seems to have more of the dream-like qualities or Blade Runner rather than the frantic, technological advances of Minority Report. Weather or not this differentiation is meaningful to anyone else by myself is something academics will have to argue at another point in time.

This one is perfect for – ahem – continued installments down the road, so keep your ears free of wax for other trips down this particularly predictive path. I had a lot of fun putting this one together, and even more performing it in KPSU’s brand-new broadcast studio (on which I’m blaming the technical errors this week). Special thanks again to Will for making sure I remembered to play a Devo song, something that completely slipped my mind somehow. (I know. I know. It shan’t happen again.)

Next, tune in at Noon for another two-hour show as I cover for What’s This Called? Until then, see ya in seven.

I have always been fascinated by all things related to space. When I was a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut. I loved sci-fi movies and books, and found myself regularly interested in things that related to the idea of leaving this planet in favor of another one. For years I wanted to make a series of tapes with my favorite alien songs on them. These days, I just do a radio show.

As I was covering for What’s This Called? this week, I decided to bring in a lot of the experimental music that I skipped the last time I did a show like this. I think it worked; it gave me a chance to play a lot of samples from The Day The Earth Stood Still, and actually made for some compelling (and strange) radio.

Much of the music speaks for itself, and with this one, I recommend just sitting back and enjoying. It has ups and downs, and I will even admit to a fair number of production gaffs and flubs. These things happen. But on the whole, this was the closest I’ve ever come to sounding like an episode of Over The Edge, and that made me particularly happy.

Don’t forget to tune in Thursday night at 10 PM for a special 12th Anniversary Broadcast, featuring an interview with Exene Cervenka! I know, I can’t believe it either. Then it’s back to business as usual next week.

Halloween draws closer and closer each and every day, and if there’s one thing I love more than Halloween and Halloween Music, it’s Halloween Music (and radio) with a Sci-Fi bent. With that in mind, I tried to bring you creepy, Halloween-infused Sci-Fi radio, with an additional self-reflexive angle to kick-start the extravaganza. What would Blasphuphmus Radio‘s Halloween Spook-tacular be without a little Outer Space Shenanigans?

Just because they didn’t this time, doesn’t mean they won’t! The perfect soundtrack to an alien invasion, UFO sighting, romantic evening for two, or merely something to put on when you’re bumming around the house.

Like this:

The original, one-hour version of this program is lost, but this is a recreation from the original discs that I edited and used to mix the broadcast. You can hear the expanded re-creation that I did in 2011 here:

Based largely on a Negativland recording, and a mix CD I made for a friend of mine years ago, I present a time-traveling epic that includes me from several points in the timestream, and lots of excellent music. Enjoy!